Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Tuesday TwitterdeeHurry-up Offense

Gotta write in a hurry today. Mother Nature is giving us a brief break in the seven-day forecast for rain, rain, rain.

If I spend too much time writing my blog this morning , heavy, dark clouds are likely to roll in and blast us again with more than enough liquid.

Then, it could be six more days of conjuring up mundane things to do in attempts to forget the frustrations of wet slop outside.

Yesterday I did just that, lots of mundane projects. I made two trips to town with the total rationalization that I had errands to do.

The strategy worked well, especially because one of the errands that needed to be done was to finally find some rain pants.

I've been looking for the kind that zip up the front. I've gone to almost every clothing-related store in town and in Bonners Ferry looking for zip-up rain pants but to no avail.

The reason I want zip-up rain pants is that I have elastic-band snow pants. They keep me dry, but they're not helpful when I've downed too much coffee.

And, that's most of the time.

It takes an act of God to get those pants down and a whole lot of work to pull them back up.

Considering how much time I spend drinking too much coffee and wanting to be outside in wet, sloppy weather, something needed to change.

Well, yesterday turned into Desperation Day. I finally went back to Wal-Mart, broke down and picked out a pair of elastic-band rain pants. They looked like they might just be a looser fit than the snow pants.

In all the busy-ness of pretending I had lots of things to do on that miserable day, I brought them home, tried them on, and, "voila!" I quickly discovered that they're much easier to pull up and down than the snow pants. Bring on the coffee!

Plus, I could even slip them on over my boots if I wished.

So, in celebration, I walked outside into the fields and through the wet, wet, wet woods with my new Coleman rain pants, my Coleman raincoat and my Seattle Sombrero.

Every step brought on a welcome sense of liberation.

After that walk, I even celebrated more, grabbing the lawn rake and cleaning up a whole lots of gravel and twigs along the driveway where more snow had melted.

During that time, I could detect a clear feeling of defiance. As a lifelong guilt-ridden soul, I know that it's not nice to have that attitude toward Mother Nature.

Still, I'm not alone. Many North Idahoans have perfected bad attitudes, thanks to lots of experience with bad weather.

When Annie called last night and told me she gets to go work where the sun is shining in Southern California for the rest of the week, I abstained from articulating any jealous rage. Instead, I told her about my new rain pants and talked about our miserable weather far so much that I finally said, "Enough, no more weather talk."

Today the sun is with us briefly, and the sky is blue. The rain pants will have at least part of a day off in their new habitat here at the Lovestead.

I'm figuring, though, that before the sun goes down (in Los Angeles), I'll be wearing the rain pants again.

And, if that ol' Mother Nature decides to pound us again for six days, my defiance will continue.